Rupture
by ChoppingBoard
Summary: After the hardships and tests encountered on the three realms, Kurama has to see himself through another one. Kurama X Botan, in which I suck at summaries.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: After eons, I finally decide to write something. I've been scouring for my crack pairings and I was getting kinda sad that some of them are dying. No one writes about them anymore. And so, I just wanted to let this out.

Disclaimer: YYH is not mine.

–-

Rupture

By ChoppingBoard

A girl with light blue hair was shaken out of her concentration of closing up shop when she felt an intense gaze directed to her. She nervously fidgeted with the keyring where the key to the metal shutters was attached to.

She saw a guy standing a few steps from where she stood. His breaths were labored and he carefully placed his hand on a lamppost nearby.

Botan carefully studied his features. Red hair, emerald eyes. She wondered if she had something on her face or if she owed something to him since he stood still and kept his gaze on her. "Yes? Can I help you with something?"

He slowly tried to open his mouth as if to say something, but seemed to find it difficult to select his words. In the end, he just took a deep breath, trying to slow his heartbeat.

The girl with light blue hair furrowed her eyebrows as the scene is slowly becoming very awkward. She just said what came into her mind first, "Umm... I'm sorry but we're closed now. Hope it's okay with you to come back tomorrow instead?" She let out the last word as a squeak as she's not sure if it will sit well with him. _He looks like he even ran just to get here. Poor thing._

The guy across her took another deep breath which seemed to finally normalize his breathing. "Ri-Right. I figured as much." He tried to respond as normal as possible but his breath hitched as he started his sentence. He offered an apologetic smile after.

Botan mimicked the emotion on his face and continued, "Really hope it won't be a problem. Well, I'm off now. See you!" Her face lit up as she ended her greeting and ran off to a small alley two blocks from the left of the store she just closed up.

In contrast, Kurama let out another deep sigh and still held the lamppost offering a feeble light above him. It was the 7:15pm, Spring in Kyoto where he saw her again.

–-

Earlier, Kurama found himself accompanied by Yusuke and Keiko below one of the trees in his university. It was lunch time and he usually spent his breaks alone, nevertheless, he welcomed both as he thought they made an effort to go all the way from their school to his. For Yusuke, it wasn't so surprising as he had a habit of cutting classes, but with Keiko, it seemed to be another story altogether. He couldn't help but be curious.

"Will you be asking me to be a godfather soon?" He couldn't help but tease the couple.

Keiko blushed furiously and automatically clasped her face with her hands, while Yusuke smirked. The two had gone off from a vacation from Kyoto and Kurama was surprised they visited him immediately the day after.

"Not exactly Kurama, though it's a nice suggestion." Yusuke responded with a grin, but within a few seconds, his jolly expression died down. "We saw her." He now averted his gaze from green eyes to his girlfriend.

The only girl in the group was silent for a while before finally deciding to speak out. "We saw Botan in Kyoto." A few seconds of silence again and she felt the downcast expression of the redhead. She wanted to say how she was delighted and relieved that they saw her but she couldn't fathom what Kurama was thinking. She fidgeted with the pleats of her skirt instead of elaborating.

_Botan. So Koenma and King Yama were merciful after all._

–_-_

_Flashback_

_He also wasn't sure how but it just happened. Red hair and light blue hair hung out more and more after many hardships and victories among the three realms. They put all that had happened in the past behind them, instead, they looked forward to more and more of the future. The future that was so uncertain and although they might not admit, it was terrifying._

_A deity of death and a ningen. Scratch that, a deity of death and a half ningen-half youkai. What can possibly go wrong?_

_For that reason, Kurama and Botan held hands while they faced King Yama._

_The King of the Spirit World offered a small smile as he started, "I've observed what has been going on between the two of you."_

_The redhead was very calm and he squeezed his hand as he felt uneasiness on the smaller hand on his._

"_We're very happy with what we have right now Your Majesty." He responded with a glint of confidence in his eyes. He tried to peek to the girl beside him and smiled at her._

"_I...I agree with what he said my Lord." Botan wasn't usually this quiet and this meeting seemed to unnerve her to no end. Kurama let her hand go and put his arm over her shoulder instead._

"_Do you think you'll end up marrying each other?" his Royal Highness asked next._

_The two figures stood still and the redhead tightened his grip on her shoulder. A person came out from the shadows and stared at the two of them._

"_We'd like to offer you something. Actually, to Botan specifically." A small boy with a pacifier on his mouth said as he tried to get closer to the couple. "Would you like to stay at Ningenkai...permanently?"_

_Botan swallowed a lump on her throat as she let the question linger on her mind. She found herself dazed and didn't notice that the meeting had ended and she was now at a clearing with Kurama._

_Noticing that she finally is coming to her senses, Kurama inquired, "What's on your mind right now?"_

_She smirked and teased him, "You". He smiled and sat down beside her. He carefully leaned his head on the trunk of the tree they were under and softly touched her head to lean on his. "I'm scared."_

"_I am too Botan." He tried to speak as calm as possible. He fears that if he spoke with the intense emotion he was feeling at that time, Botan would no doubt start crying._

_Koenma said they can make her human, but at a cost. She'll lose all of her memories. Of the Spirit World, of ferrying dead souls, of standing by all of them during the dark tournament and monsters invading the human and spirit worlds, of defeats, of triumphs, of him. He silently mused that she would be all alone. The prince of the spirit world guaranteed that she'll be the same age and she'll even have some memories embedded, as if she's been in Ningenkai all her life. Another consequence was no one will know where she'll end up and if they'll ever meet her again._

_He felt the irony of it all. All this, is it worth it?_

Fin

A/N: I felt that this can be a oneshot but I can still consider continuing it. I've been reading Kurama x Boton fics and I wondered if a relationship between the two would be smooth, thinking that one was from the Spirit World and the other was a half-human, half-demon. And thus, this fic. Reviews are definitely appreciated :)


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own YYH.

**Rupture Chapter 2**

**By: ChoppingBoard**

It was 10:00pm in the evening when Kurama finally decided to call his mother.

"_Hello Shuichi? What happened? I was so worried you weren't answering any of my messages."_

Kurama smiled softly as he heard the concern from his mother's voice. "Sorry about that mom, I uh... I lost track of time. I went to Yusuke's. He had souvenirs for us from when he went to Kyoto with Keiko." It was half a lie. He did lost track of time, but he already received his share of souvenirs when they visited him during lunch.

"_I see. Are you on your way home? What time will you be here? I'll leave some food on the table"_

"I still have to go somewhere but I'll be there at around 11:30." Again, only half of it was true. He was already on his way home but the bullet train to Tokyo took more than 2 hours. It was impossible to arrive earlier. "And don't worry about dinner, I already had some."

"_Okay, got it. Take care of yourself. Bye!"_

"Bye mom..." He slowly lowered his phone and pressed 'End'. His mom was always worried when he didn't get to reply immediately.

–-

_Flashback:_

_"You should go back now. Shiori must be worried." Botan glanced at her wristwatch before standing up from a swing and dusted her hands on her denim pants._

_Kurama glanced at his timepiece which read 10:00pm. "It's still early." He stood up and hugged her from behind to nuzzle her light blue hair. "And besides, I already told mom that I'll be late today."_

–-

It was bad that he was slowly remembering things. Kurama rested his chin on his right hand while he looked outside the window. The stars shone brightly outside the window. _Just like that night._ He then remembered he had to call Yusuke.

"_Kurama! What's up?"_

"Could you do me a favor Yusuke?" he replied. When he heard a lazy 'uh-huh' on the other line, he continued, "my mom might call you and ask if I was there. Could you tell her that I did drop by your house?"

Yusuke's tone sounded worried when he finally digested what the redhead was asking him. "What happened? Is something wrong? Where are you right now?" His voice got louder when he finished the last sentence.

Kurama sweatdropped and heard Keiko in the background asking her boyfriend what was wrong.

"Ah, actually..." he was carefully choosing his words to handle the matter at hand. "I actually am on my way back to Tokyo...from Kyoto." _There, I said it._ He thought that letting the truth out may offer some sort of relief.

"_YOU WHAT?!"_ He heard Keiko again and now she was demanding to speak with him as well. _"Alright alright, I'll put the phone on loudspeaker"_ he heard more rustling and Keiko finally spoke, _"you're on loudspeaker now Kurama. Hope this is okay?"_

"That's alright Keiko" he tried to reassure them by chuckling for a bit. "It was a last minute thing. As I told you guys during lunch, I wanted to let it sink in before I go. But when my classes finished, I found myself on the train platform."

The other line kept silent and he considered it as a cue for him to continue.

"I saw her. It's a good thing I remembered bits of the address you mentioned. Unfortunately, I still stumbled upon the wrong street and had to run for a bit." In reality, Yusuke and Keiko mentioned that it was a flowershop in Gion. It was a miracle that the redhead found her.

Keiko was also sorting out her words, _"That's good! Did you speak to her?"_ What she said was awkward, but thought that the person on the other line might think they dropped the call. It was better to say something than to keep silent longer.

"She just finished closing the flowershop when I got there." He paused for a bit. "It was embarrassing that I was catching my breath when I saw her. In the end, I didn't say anything. She must've thought I was a creepy customer. I had to settle with the apologetic smile she offered when she told me to come back tomorrow."

The other line was silent again.

"Sorry about calling you again at this hour. And I still hope you can cover for me." Kurama tried his most sincere tone as he pleaded.

"_I'm sorry Kurama. This is my fault" _Yusuke finally spoke out. And he heard Keiko stutter with her 'umm' on the other line.

"Not at all-"

"_No Kurama, Keiko wanted to keep the secret for a while, but I insisted that you had to know immediately. I'm sorry"_

"As I was saying, not at all Yusuke. And I can't blame you too Keiko. I'm actually glad you guys told me about it." he was trying to keep calm to not worry his friends. "I thought I was ready, that's why I went to Kyoto on a whim. I wasn't ready to be honest, when I heard your story over lunch. I thought when I get to see her, I'll be ready then. Apparently, I'm not."

"_Do you want to talk this through? We can meet you at the station." _Keiko sounded worried when she spoke.

And it was like that all over again, the last time this happened was 3 years ago. When they finally agreed to King Yama and Koenma's offer. He didn't say it out loud but his teammates figured that something's gotta give. They were constantly checking up on him when it happened. They feared that he might have a breakdown anytime. Even Hiei knocked on his window everyday. It was to Kurama's relief that even if his family didn't know Botan, his friends were always there.

"Don't worry about it. I got this" the redhead chuckled. It was uncharacteristic but he wanted something other than words to express via the phone.

"_I insist, let's meet at the station."_ Yusuke responded.

"Sorry but I have to decline, I've spent around 5 hours on a bullet train. I think I need to rest."

It was enough for Yusuke and Keiko to fold. To which Yusuke added, _"Okay, but just let us know if you change your mind. We can even call Kuwabara or Hiei if you want."_

Kurama smiled, "No need. Thank you for the offer though. I'll let you know if something's up. Bye!"

"_Bye Kurama. Take care of yourself, okay?"_ it was Keiko who spoke and ended the call.

The redhead sighed. _I am alright. I've got this. The two hours I spent in Kyoto drinking should be enough._


End file.
